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March 29, 2012 by David K. Sutton

Great Climate Change Article By A Republican Meteorologist

In a rare event from the conservative side of the aisle, a Republican meteorologist, Paul Douglas, penned a powerful article on the reality of climate change, how it is already affecting us, and how it will impact us long-term, particularly if so many continue to deny reality. I can’t say I agree with everything Douglas writes about in his article but even the parts I disagree with are still coming from the right place. For example, I do think private businesses will have to play a role in solving this problem but climate change is such a huge problem it will required mandates from governments around the world to effect any real change.

I like that Douglas acknowledges that capitalism requires growth fueled by consumption of carbon-based fuels. It’s something you rarely hear from a Republican and it’s something I’ve written about several times on The Left Call. If we don’t find a way to replace petroleum as our primary fuel sources we will never successfully combat climate change.

The root of the word conservative is “conserve.” A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly “global warming alarmists” are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed.

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My climate epiphany wasn’t overnight, and it had nothing to do with Al Gore. In the mid-90s I noticed gradual changes in the weather patterns floating over Minnesota. Curious, I began investigating climate science, and, over time, began to see the thumbprint of climate change, along with 97% of published, peer-reviewed PhD’s, who link a 40% spike in greenhouse gases with a warmer, stormier atmosphere.

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My father, a devout Republican, who escaped a communist regime in East Germany, always taught me to never take my freedom for granted, and “actions have consequences.” Carbon that took billions of years to form has been released in a geological blink of an eye. Human emissions have grown significantly over the past 200 years, and now exceed 27 billion tons of carbon dioxide, annually. To pretend this isn’t having any effect on the 12-mile thin atmosphere overhead is to throw all logic and common sense out the window. It is to believe in scientific superstitions and political fairy tales, about a world where actions have no consequences – where colorless, odorless gases, the effluence of success and growth, can be waved away with a nod and a smirk. No harm, no foul. Keep drilling.

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We don’t have much time. Earth Day is April 22, but every day is Earth Day. Native Americans remind us of the sacred responsibility we have for all those who come next:

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors…we borrow it from our children.”